Irregularities identified in provision of benefits

As a result of an unplanned inspection in March-May, specialists of the Social Inspectorate of the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family identified irregularities in the process of providing social assistance. Cases of violation of the legislation concerning the payment of social benefits and incorrect administrative practices were discovered in the social assistance divisions of nine districts, Info-Prim Neo reports. The Social Inspectorate’s head Mircea Grigoriev said that one of the violations is the provision of social benefit to families where not all the adult members are entitled to such assistance. Among other irregularities are the erroneous declaration of families’ incomes (salaries, pensions, compensations, state social allowances, indemnities) and the non-observance of the legal term for examining the applications for social benefit. Minister of Labor, Social Protection and Family Valentina Buliga called upon the local public authorities to inform the social workers about cases when the beneficiaries do not declare the incomes and work illegally. The employers and farmers should be convinced to legalize the labor of temporary workers and to declare the vacant jobs. The minister said that 438 million lei was earmarked in the 2012 state budget for paying social benefits. It is important that they are distributed correctly, without abuses, frauds and errors on the part of the recipients and those who work in the social assistance sector. The number of families who receive social assistance is on the rise. The figure in 2011 was about 80,000. Over 80% of the families who benefit from support from the state have by at least one child.